welcome ponyracer! crossing baja at high speed in an old ford truck is gonna make ya look like charles bronson! hope ya make your retirement in good health. you deserve it. thanks for your service.

LOL, this one will have AC and a lexan windshield. Prob looking at a Viper dropout engine and 6 speed manual tranny. Hell you can barely buy a stock crate engine replacement and a mildly built auto for the price of the take out v10. Figure that way it'll have plenty of power in stock form instead of a high strung sbf of mod motor. Just wish they made glass fenders for the early dodges. But I'm a ford guy anyway, and I don't care about my truck having a cross breed engine.

Did some measuring today, not sure if I'm going to be able to package everything I want into my bus and still keep the garage. I've been working on the floorplan, once I get some finished possibilities I'll post them up for feedback.

Ponyracer,
If you were talking about using the rear upper lights as brake/blinker lights it might be an issue, as far as I know lights up that high cannot be red/yellow/blue unless it is an emergency or road crew type vehicle.

Cutting/moving the end caps, their are many discussions about that on the board, my take away is they they are more important to the structure then any other piece, might want to look at the old discussions.

Since your bus is a big metal can having more than one exit is important in case of a fire or wreck.

Nice bus, good score! With the engine/tranny/rear end combo you have on the bus, top speed will be about 55mph, maby close to 60 downhill with a tailwind up against the governor, redline+ on the tach. But she will pull great up hills. I just walked away from a low mileage bus of the same make, engine, tranny, rear end combo because of the speed limitation issues. It was a hard choice because the bus was so clean with such low miles for $4,500 and I fear that someday I may regret that decision but I was concerned about fuel mileage issues running the 5.9 up against the redline on the highway. It will be interesting to see what kind of mileage you get in real life. Looking forward to your progress!

Ponyracer,
If you were talking about using the rear upper lights as brake/blinker lights it might be an issue, as far as I know lights up that high cannot be red/yellow/blue unless it is an emergency or road crew type vehicle.

Cutting/moving the end caps, their are many discussions about that on the board, my take away is they they are more important to the structure then any other piece, might want to look at the old discussions.

Since your bus is a big metal can having more than one exit is important in case of a fire or wreck.

Thanks, I'll look into it, hadn't thought of the legality of the lights. As far as moving the end caps, it's all just a theoretical discussion until someone takes a bus and drops it on it's roof then takes the identical model and mods the roof then does the same test. I've built enough roll cages and custom suspensions on drag cars and desert trucks/4x4's to get a pretty good feel for what's safe and what will work. Not to mention even if you do take 25% of the strength away in a roof lift (doubtful) then it would still be 50% stronger that a stick and staple RV. Not to mention if you roll a schoolbus upside down you have larger promlems than the roof collapsing, such as 10,000 lbs of household goods flying around inside. So at the end of the day I'm not real concerned.

As far as multiple exits, I like large windows so I have plenty of doors if it's an emergency lol.

Nice bus, good score! With the engine/tranny/rear end combo you have on the bus, top speed will be about 55mph, maby close to 60 downhill with a tailwind up against the governor, redline+ on the tach. But she will pull great up hills. I just walked away from a low mileage bus of the same make, engine, tranny, rear end combo because of the speed limitation issues. It was a hard choice because the bus was so clean with such low miles for $4,500 and I fear that someday I may regret that decision but I was concerned about fuel mileage issues running the 5.9 up against the redline on the highway. It will be interesting to see what kind of mileage you get in real life. Looking forward to your progress!

Ya that was my only issue with the bus, any idea what these came with for tranny's? I'm assuming the 545 but hoping for something else. I will get it down to the lower 48 then swap out the rear axle for an airide setup with 4.10s or 4.30s and just turn up the power a touch. Figure I'll have 10K lbs in the bus and a car trailer behind it so 5.38's will be perfect, I'll just drive slower. Not like you should be speeding in a bus across AK/Canadian roads anyway lol.

I spent more than I wanted but this was one of those perfect combo's with the perfect mileage etc, I prob should have waited but then I'd have had to rent a uhaul or have the .mil move my stuff and wouldn't have made any money.

Getting the gearing right on these rigs can make all the difference in the world. Below is a handy calculator that will let you plug your numbers in and see where you stand...then play with other combinations. Very handy. I used it to devine the new gearing and tire size for my shorty.

Getting the gearing right on these rigs can make all the difference in the world. Below is a handy calculator that will let you plug your numbers in and see where you stand...then play with other combinations. Very handy. I used it to devine the new gearing and tire size for my shorty.

Nice one, thanks! I'll prob get some nice shiny aluminum wheels with some taller tires then I'll figure out what gear I need to run to put the cummins in the sweet spot while cruising. I have no prob running 60-65 with the engine in the middle of it's "power band". I have no desire to push this thing to 70-75, as this phase is all about the journey not the destination.

My old "Detroit Screamer" powered 40' BB was happy and handled well up to 70 on expressways, but keep in mind that along with more "GO" you also need more "STOP". Make sure your brakes are up to whatever speeds you hope to achieve. I found a deserted straight stretch on which to test mine for their "panic stop" response and discovered they did a much better job than anticipated of hauling down 10 tons of iron. Knowing what to expect in advance is a significant plus. It is a good idea to get a real world feel for what they are capable of. Remember...

Been looking for bumper designs, I happen to have a plasma table at work along with a cnc mill and some other cool toys. I kinda like this one, just wish I could find some more pics, maybe similar design but a bit taller. I want it to roll livestock/bear/moose under the bus and not through the windshield.

Thoughts? Anyone have any pics saved they could post up? After looking for semi truck and bus grille guards and looking at mine, I'll prob make a rectangular replacement bumper that wraps around the edges and has a grill guard incorporate into it.

Also is there an out of the box class 5 hitch that fits a bus? I found one that was for an f350 but it was 4" too wide. I could cut the welds and slide the mount plates in and reweld (which I'll prob end up doing) but a bolt on would be nice. Looking for a class 5, 10-12K weight without a load leveler.